A RAPID about-face for Jacqui Smith, the Redditch MP and Home Secretary, who is now denying the Government ever planned to publish a list of violent men for women to consult.

The proposal touted was that women, to discover whether their new boyfriend had a dark past, would check the list if they were thinking of starting a relationship. The idea was presumably dreamt up by over-enthusiastic PR officials, and was clearly absurd. But it’s not the first time this has happened. Last year, journalists were told about a bold new scheme in which offenders in knife assaults would visit their victims in hospital.

This also turned out to be nonsense – and left Ms Smith looking foolish.

* MPs will go to extreme lengths to grab the attention of Peter Mandelson, the Business Secretary.

He’s in demand because he’s responsible for rescuing the economy and saving jobs. But there’s no easy way for MPs to question him, because he’s a member of the House of Lords, Peter Luff (Con Mid Worecestershire), the chairman of the Business Select Committee, has found a loophole. As part of an ongoing campaign, the Government has invited users of video website YouTube to pose questions. The idea is presumably to reach out to young people. But MPs have seized the opportunity, and questioners so far include one Peter J Luff.

* WHEN MP Daniel Kawczynski (Con Shrewsbury) wanted to complain about the crowded and stuffy train service from Shrewsbury to Birmingham, he went straight to the top.

But it didn’t all go according to plan. He told MPs: “I called Mr Bob Holland, the then-chief executive of Arriva and kept complaining so much that he finally agreed to accompany me on an Arriva service between Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton.

“Lo and behold, all of a sudden, when the chief executive appeared, the train arrived on time for the first time ever.

“We had extra carriages and, amazingly, they served tea and coffee and sold cakes, which was an experience that I had never come across before.”

* BLACK Country MP Lynda Waltho (Lab Stourbridge) has been taking part in a bid to beat the record for the number of bananas eaten in a single day.

It’s all to raise awareness of freetrade deals with developing countries, apparently.